reading goals 2012

Ok. I was able to accomplish my goal of reading 17 books last year and actually surpassed it by quite a bit, so I'm going to try to match the same goal for this year. I'm noticing that my kids (8,6,4,2) are more of a priority than reading lots of books lately, so was actually very helpful for me to have a reading goal last year. So, my goal is to finish at least 17 books in 2012. Here's the list so far.

1) The Long-Shooters - Daniel Chamberlain (written by my next door neighbor! very good western mystery novel!)
2) Couterfeit Gods - Tim Keller (excellent, excellent... every page has something worth underlining)
3) The House on Plum Creek - Laura Ingalls Wilder (third book in Little House Series. loved it)
4) Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns - T. David Gordon (book about how contemporary worship music is musically and spiritually inferior to the traditional hymnody of the church. the author is very much against using guitars in worship. he makes some good points. worth reading, but I don't buy into his ideas completely)
5) Against Calvinism - Roger Olsen (best book against Calvinism, in favor of Arminianism I've ever read. Actually, maybe the only one I've ever read)

two interesting articles on preaching

One by Todd Hiestand and one by Mark Driscoll.

satisfaction in ministry

Just read this awesome article by Dallas Willard about satisfaction in ministry. Here's an excerpt:

"Experiencing God in that way leads me to satisfaction in Christ and to speaking to others out of that satisfaction. There is no substitute for simple satisfaction in the Word of God, in the presence of God. That affects all your actions."

prayer for bedtime

Just came across this nice prayer:

For Refreshing Sleep by Josh Thomas

Holy One, you created our bodies both for active living and for quiet sleep: now the day is done and the night has come. Help me so to relax my body, to deepen my breathing, to empty my mind, to let go of all cares and excitements, to trust in your mercy, that I may repose in your peace. You have made us a dreaming people, O Lord, and I ask you to fill me with visions of your heavenly kingdom, where all your creation dwell with you in harmony and quiet joy. Thank you, God, for rest. Amen.

I found it here.

Books I've read in 2011

Trying to keep track of the books that I've read so far in 2011:

33. Peaks and Valleys - Spencer Johnson
32. Heaven - Randy Alcorn (read 90% of it)
31. StandOut - Marcus Buckingham
30. Little House in the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
29. Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder
28. Radical - David Platt
27. Three Simple Rules - Reuben Job
26. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis
25. You Have What It Takes: What Every Father Needs to Hear - John Eldridge
24. Crazy Love - Francis Chan
23. Half-time - Bob Buford
22. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis
21. Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne
20. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
19. Trunk Music - Michael Connelly
18. Heaven is Real - Todd Burpo
17. Love Wins - Rob Bell
16. Spirit-Led Preaching - Greg Heisler
15. The Last Coyote - Michael Connelly
14. The Poet - Michael Connelly
13. The Concrete Blonde - Michael Connelly
12. The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly
11. Gospel Clarity - Ligon Duncan
10. Barth for Armchair Theologians - John Franke
9. Fall of Giants - Ken Follett
8. The 4:8 Principle - Tommy Newberry (reread)
7. Church Planter - Darrin Patrick
6. What is Reformed Theology? - R.C. Sproul
5. The Gospel & Personal Evangelism - Mark Dever
4. The Five Points of Calvinism - David N.Steele, Curtis C. Thomas, S. Lance Quinn
3. When People are Big and God is Small - Edward T. Welch
2. Why We Love the Church - Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck
1. Biblical Economics - R.C.Sproul, Jr.

what is vision anyway?

For the first 7 years of my ministry, I really struggled with trying to wrap my head around what "vision" was. Every leadersihip book I read talked so much about vision. Everywhere I turned people were quoting Proverbs 29:18 from the King James Version: "Where there is no vision the people perish." I always wondered why, if that was the central verse for church leaders, no later translation of the Bible worded it in a way that could be used for the same purpose.

I remember one time sitting in a group of pastors and asking the leader to clarify the idea of "vision." He asked the other pastors gathered if they could help explain. Everyone understood it differently. Someone threw out numeric goals for their worship attendance as an example of vision. Where they wrong about "vision"? I don't know!

After being a solo pastor for 3.5 years, I'm finally coming to understand this concept of vision. In my understanding of vision within the church leadership realm, it simply means this where the leader/s sense God is calling the church to go next. It is saying, "This is what we think God wants us to look like in 3 years or 5 years, etc." It is a picture of something better that is articulated and communicated so that people can establish goals and tasks toward making it happen. That's my current understanding of vision, and I'm pretty sure that this is not what the writer of Proverbs 29:18 had in mind.

What inspired my thinking about vision this morning was this article: Developing a Vision When You're Not a Visionary. Great article.

Cho on our obsession w/megachurches

I have nothing against megachurches by any stretch. I celebrate that God's Spirit is being poured out in these large groups of Christians gathering to hear God's Word and be in mission together. Contrary to what many people say, I'm often very impressed by the humility and missional mind-set of large church pastors I meet. But truthfully, most of my pastor friends will never pastor megachurches. So, does that mean that we are not being faithful to our calling?

I read this artical by Eugene Cho yesterday which I really appreciated. He shares the one "problem" he has with megachurches. Here's a blurb:

So, what’s my ONE issue with megachurches? It actually has nothing to do with the megachurches themselves.  I’ve been told by numerous folks (including the aforementioned megachurch pastor above) that megachurches only comprise 1% of the churches in North America. This stat is often used by folks to share “the megachurch” isn’t a big issue or problem since there are so few of them.
I get it, understand, and agree with it.

But then why are that the majority of the conferences revolve around the megachurches and their pastors?

This is my issue and concern. I think megachurches and their leaders are doing phenomenal ministry.  I really do.  But we’ve elevated this 1% as the epitome and face of a successful ministry and created a machine of conferences, publishers, books, and networks based on this very limited expression.

Like others, I’m interested in hearing from Groeschel, Stanley, Jakes, Gibbons, Keller, Bell, Warren, Blah blah and other “big hitters.”  But if we’ve limited the expressions of the church to this supposed 1%, what are we saying?  What’s the message we’re conveying?There are many wonderful and faithful pastors in our local neighborhood and cities – that you’ll likely never heard of – but they should be heard from.  And if you happen to be of them reading this entry right now: Thank you for your ministry, faithfulness, and leadership.

This is a passage of Scripture I've been meditating on lately:

"For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose."

- 1 Corinthians 12:14-18 (ESV)

death by Barth via Franke

Just finished reading Barth for Armchair Theologians by John R. Franke. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the historical sections about Barth and how he defied Hitler, abandoned liberalism, and rose as a prominenent theologian. But when Franke started actually trying to describe Barth's theology as laid out in his Church Dogmatics, it almost killed me. Makes me wonder if Barth is really that hard to understand or if Franke is just a master of making understandable things seem incomprehensible.

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save...

Yesterday I received a beautiful get-well card from a 90+ year-old  woman in our congregation. It had a really wonderful Scripture on the front that touched my heart. It was Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV):

"The LORD your God is with you,
        he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
       he will quiet you with his love,
       he will rejoice over you with singing."

contextualization

When I read Church Planter a few weeks ago, there was one chapter that I didn't get to blog about but wanted to. It was chapter 15, entitled "The How of Mission: Contextualizaton." I thought there was some really great quotes in that chapter which help explain what contextualization is and why its important.

Darrin Patrick writes, "Contextualization is not a rejection of the absolute, objective truth of the gospel in favor of the latest fad of relativism. D.A.Carson says it best, 'No truth which human beings may articulate can ever be articulated in a culture-transcending way, but that does not mean that the truth thus articulated does not transcend culture" (193-194).

He shares this quote from Tim Keller, "Contextualization is adapting gospel ministry from one culture into another culture by 1) changing those aspects of ministry that are culturally conditioned, and 2) maintaining those aspects of ministry that are unchanging and Biblically required. Contextualization 'incarnates' the Christian faith in a particular culture. It is the process by which we present the gospel to people of a particular world-view, in forms that the 'receptor-hearers' can understand" (194).

A quote from Dean Flemming, "Contextualization is the dynamic and comprehensive process by which the gospel is incarnated within a concrete or historical situation" (196).

One more from Keller, "The minute we begin to minister we must 'incarnate,' even as Jesus did. Actual Christian practices must have both a biblical form or shape as well as a cultural form or shape. For example, the Bible clearly directs us to use music to praise God. But as soon as we choose a style of music to use, we enter a culture. As soon as we choose a language, as soon as we choose a vocabulary, as soon as we choose a particular level of emotional expressiveness and intensity, as soon as we choose even an illustration as an example for a sermon, we are moving toward a social context of some peopel and away from the social context of others. At Pentecost, everyone heard the sermon in his or her own language and dialect. But since Pentecost, we can never be 'all things to all people' at the very same time. So adaptation to culture is inevitable" (197).